In an unexpected move, the Swedish Minister of Culture said in a speech that she's happy with the sentences handed out to the defendants in the Pirate Bay trial. Her comments on an ongoing court case go too far, and are probably unconstitutional according to critics. Music industry insiders, on the other hand, cheered during her speech.

Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth, the Swedish Minister of Culture held a speech before the Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers (SKAP) yesterday evening. By itself this is not really anything unusual, but while she was speaking she also commented on the verdict in the Pirate Bay trial and the sentences handed out to the defendants.

In front of an audience of music industry insiders the Minister commented on the Pirate Bay verdict. “This may not be appreciated by everyone, but I was one of those who was pleased with the verdict in the Pirate Bay case,” she said.

While some of the audience cheered after hearing the Minister’s statement, others frowned, probably realizing that she is not supposed to give her personal opinion on an ongoing court case. In Sweden there is a so called rule of ministers (Ministerstyre) which makes it unconstitutional for ministers and other members of parliament to influence individual cases handled by government agencies. This means that Adelsohn-Liljeroth may have overstepped the line with her recent comments.

The Minister of Culture gave the speech during a dinner attended by 450 guests including copyright holders, artists and legislators. The atmosphere, including some of the other talks, was already pretty hostile towards everything file-sharing related. So, in a way the Minister’s comments fitted in nicely. However, the Minister’s statement could have political consequences.

Marie Demker, professor of political science at University of Gothenburg told SVD in a comment, “Since the verdict has been appealed, the process of justice isn’t concluded. In that case, it’s a very gray area to take side in an issue that’s politically discussed, both with the issue of bias and as an important topic in the EU elections.””

“This will spread throughout social media and it will affect voters. The Minister’s comment is like an elephant stomping through a china shop,” Demker said. Indeed, it is not unlikely that the Swedish voters will distance themselves even more from established politicians such as Adelsohn-Liljeroth, which may benefit the Pirate Party’s march towards Brussels.